Bad Luck

Well, I had a big, long post about the cosplays I was planning for ACen, but as it turns out, my luck with internet purchases has been really bad lately, and I'm running out of time to get things done.

I'm most likely going to heavily edit the first lineup post and start posting information about the cosplays individually.

I also already have progress posts on my Medic cosplay, but I've been waiting to get my pictures off my camera before publishing them. I'll be putting them up very soon. I had a lot of the materials I needed for this cosplay already, and I've gotten a lot done for it. I'm pretty confident I can finish it in time for ACen.

Dlanor is almost certainly not going to happen. I'm not going to get a lot of the stuff I already ordered until it's too late. I'll have to try making Dlanor for some different convention.

I also won't have the materials I ordered for my Miranda armor until it's too late. I'll most likely put that off until Otakon this year.

I have started taking a look at the materials I already have on hand (some of them are from previous or failed cosplays). I think I could pull off doing a Siesta sister from Umineko. I have some white cotton material, some fuzzy fabric, and I think I may have some blue or red cotton fabric. The only thing I wouldn't have is the white boots, but I'll see if I can either borrow some from my friends or find something local.

It's a long shot, but I may also have some materials to make Miranda's loyalty outfit instead. I'm going to concentrate on finishing my Medic cosplay and the Siesta cosplay first though. There's always Otakon for a Mass Effect cosplay.

Here's hoping that your cosplays are going better than mine!

Medic - Ubersaw and Med Pack progress

I've been fixing up the edges of my Ubersaw with Paperclay to make them more even.

The only complaint I have about Paperclay is that it doesn't like to stick to much of anything (even itself sometimes). I'll bet I'm doing something wrong, but I'm a tad disillusioned by this "awesome material" especially since it cost so dang much. I'm sure it'll work out okay though, and it does sand very, very well.

After I sand some more, put on some more Paperclay, and then sand some more, I'll be putting on at least two layers of Modge Podge to seal and prime it. Then, I'll move on to paint. Painting will be interesting. I've never done a prop with metal-looking pieces or done heavy weathering.

I've also started blue prints for the main body of the "med pack"/backpack. I'll be making most of it out of foamcore and the extra bits will be out of foamies.

The edges on the foamcore pieces don't look very pretty once the pieces get cut out, but they'll either be covered or filled in.

Medic - Ubersaw progress

I've done quite a bit of work on my Ubersaw so far.

The main, "core" piece was made out of some hobby wood from Michaels. This added stability to the prop but was still thin enough for my tastes. I traced the shape from my template out onto the board and then used my dremel to cut it out. I also sanded down the edges to even out the cuts and to bevel the blade's edge a bit.

The rest of the pieces are all foamies (even the giant screws!). These pieces were glued on with hotglue in layers to build it up.

One of the top pieces got stretched out and warped a little when I glued it down. I'll need to be a little more careful not to stretch craft foam pieces when I'm glueing them down next time.

The layers don't line up perfectly, so I'll need to finish the edges with something to smooth it out.

Medic - Ubersaw

I'm going with just the Ubersaw for my Medic weapon prop. I did a quick scribble to figure out the shapes of each layer and how many layers I would need to get the right "bulk".

I used a side reference shot of the Ubersaw from the TF2 wiki and scaled it in Photoshop to fit my hand proportions then I printed the scaled picture.

Since the print out was in two pieces, I just trimmed the white space between them and taped them together. I also cut out all the additional white space around the image.

After trimming, I copied the shape's outline to a piece of poster board for the "core" layer template and then mocked-up additional layer templates.

Templates are good to go! Now on to cutting!

Anime Central Lineup - Medic

I've been planning on cosplaying from Team Fortress 2 again since I tried out the Engineer at Geek.Kon.

When I got two of my friends on board for their first con and first cosplay, we wanted to do one as a group. We decided TF2 would be a good start for them because a lot of the costumes weren't difficult and a lot of the parts can just be bought then modified.

This year, I'm going to be trying my hand at the BLU Medic. (I told them we were going to be BLU because I'd rather be dead than RED!)

I've had my eye on Chemical Alia's female Medic model that she designed and created for TF2. I like Chemical Alia's design the best because, honestly, her Medic actually looks like she belongs there in game. The outfit is practical but still different enough from the regular male Medic's with its feminine modifications, and I'm going to try my best to emulate both of those things. (Practical feminization!)

Anime Central 2011

Anime Central Time!
All right! First post! (Because there totally wasn't one before this one!)

I've been going to Anime Central (better known as "ACen") since 2006. Way back when I was still in college. I've gone to every ACen since, and it is by far my favorite convention. I haven't really been able to cosplay much, but I'm hoping this year will be different.

I did have a nice outline of the cosplays I was planning to have completed for ACen, but that might have jinxed me. I'll be posting progress on my cosplays in separate posts.

Anime Central
May 20 - 22, 2011
Hyatt Regency O'Hare
Rosemont, IL

Main Page - http://acen.org
Forums - http://acen.org/forums